The Prime Minister’s Office has announced that the 106th Archbishop of Canterbury will be Dame Sarah Mullally, currently Bishop of London. The official website of the Archbishop of Canterbury has further information here, Canterbury diocese has this, and the Church of England this. It is expected that she will legally assume the office on 28 January 2026, with her installation or enthronement on 25 March.
Appointment of the Archbishop of Canterbury: 3 October 2025
The King has approved the nomination of The Right Reverend and Right Honourable Dame Sarah Mullally D.B.E. for election as Archbishop of Canterbury.
From: Prime Minister’s Office, 10 Downing Street
Published 3 October 2025The King has approved the nomination of The Right Reverend and Right Honourable Dame Sarah Mullally D.B.E., for election by the College of Canons of Canterbury Cathedral in the place of The Right Reverend and Right Honourable Justin Portal Welby, GCVO, as Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, Primate of All England and Metropolitan.
Lord Evans of Weardale, KCB, DL, Chair of the Crown Nominations Commission for Canterbury welcomed the news:
“It has been a great privilege to have chaired the Crown Nominations Commission as it sought to discern who God is calling to lead the Church of England and Anglican Communion as Archbishop of Canterbury. That discernment began with the public consultation, which heard the voices of thousands of people as they expressed their hopes for this nomination, and continued all the way through to the Commission’s final meeting. I would like to thank all those who took part in this process, particularly those who took time to share their views in the consultation and the members of the Commission who worked so diligently over several months, ably assisted by the Appointments Secretaries and by the Appointments and Vocations team at Lambeth Palace. I shall be praying for Bishop Sarah as she prepares to take up this new ministry in the coming months.”
Sarah Mullally was, prior to ordination, the Government’s Chief Nursing Officer for England having specialised as a cancer nurse. She was educated at South Bank University, London, and Heythrop College, University of London, and trained for ministry at the South East Institute of Theological Education. She completed her title at St. Saviour Battersea Fields, in the Diocese of Southwark, and was ordained as a priest in 2002.
In 2006, Sarah was appointed Team Rector, Christ Church, Sutton, Southwark and then became Canon Residentiary and Treasurer at Salisbury Cathedral in 2012. In 2015, Sarah was consecrated as Suffragan Bishop of Crediton, in the Diocese of Exeter, and in 2018 took up her current role as Bishop of London as well as Dean of the Chapels Royal from 2019.
In a separate statement, the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer has said
“I welcome the appointment of The Right Reverend and Right Honourable Dame Sarah Mullally D.B.E as the new Archbishop of Canterbury and the first woman to hold the role.
“The Church of England is of profound importance to this country. Its churches, cathedrals, schools, and charities are part of the fabric of our communities.
“The Archbishop of Canterbury will play a key role in our national life. I wish her every success and look forward to working together.”
I have very mixed feelings about this. She has an immense amount of relevant experience, and a lot of skills, and I am genuinely pleased a woman has been appointed. She’s used to dealing with obstructive and devious senior civil servants, and it doesn’t get more establishment than a former Chief Nursing Officer. She was the one ultimately responsible for initiating the departure of Mr Sargent from London Diocese and also alone in not laughing along merrily with ++Welby’s disgraceful departure speech in the Lords – face like thunder throughout, which was to her credit. But…for me the fact that… Read more »
Indeed the attempt to change the Coroner’s report was telling.
I have similar feelings. Also note that she is already 63, so may be intended in a caretaker, steady the ship role.
Thank you Realist for mentioning Father Alan Griffin which is a case very dear to my heart. Since March 2020, a few months before Fr Alan died, I have been supporting a friend in a similar allegation of being accused of sexual touching with no evidence or investigation and yet being deemed to be a ‘High Risk’ sexual predator. His case was in a Diocese in the Midlands and there were nine parallels with the case of Fr Alan. In 2021 I compiled these as a chart and sent them to the Diocesan Safeguarding Officer and senior clergy in the… Read more »
Susan I am a victim of clerical abuse that included some inappropriate touching and I want to say that the Church of England needs to handle safeguarding in a much better way. Of course serious sexual abuse needs to be dealt with seriously but I would guess that most abuse does not fall into that category. It may not even be abuse, simply a breakdown in relations between priest and parishioner. But if you are a believer priests have enormous power and what may seem like a very minor transgression can have a devastating effect. I know. I was driven… Read more »
Susan’s friend’s case is very different from the kind of scenario I think you are envisaging. It involves serious abuses of process and a serious miscarriage of justice. It has parallels, as Susan says, with the case of Fr Alan Griffin. The coroner harshly criticised the Diocese of London for its abuses of process in that case, leading to the poor man’s suicide.
Janet it is true that I am not familiar with the case you quote. My general point is this. The emphasis in a Christian family (the body of Christ) should be on reconciliation and healing and a quasi judicial process should be the very last resort and reserved for very serious cases of abuse. I was in deep distress but my distress was simply ignored until I made two CDM complaints. In my experience the Church of England is very very bad at caring for each other. There is very little Christian love around. Lots of talking about love in… Read more »
David, I’m sorry that you were abused and that it caused such deep distress. You are right that the C of E handles these things very badly, and that it causes further damage. I have some difficulty, however, with the approach you suggest. Firstly, because trying a ‘reconciliation and healing’ approach can be actually harmful where there is a power differential between the complainant and the accused – as is usually the case. Abusers are experts at manipulation and can use such processes to inflict further harm. Second, because what seems to be ‘minor’ abuse may be only one of… Read more »
David, with respect you have assumed the issue was between a priest and female member of the congregation.This is not so. A chorister accused my male friend, an elderly frail person, of sexually touching him. He alleged that this took place at a time when my friend was not even in the country. The evidence to prove whether or not the only three times they could possibly have been in the vestry together, was withheld by the Diocesan Safeguarding Officer because she believed that the complainant (child) should be believed and any evidence to the contrary is inadmissible. Similarly, a… Read more »
I assume now that WATCH will succeed in their quest to have the 5 GPs (Guiding Principles) rescinded and alternative episcopal oversight to come to an end.
Sadly, I suspect that it would be easier for a bloke to guide that one through.
I come from the AEO side of the church and Sarah Mullaly is least ‘WATCHy’ of the current women bishops line up – has been happy to attend +Fulham services in choir dress and no awkwardness. I don’t think she has anything against the idea of ‘mutual flourishing’.
See my comment in reply to Michael – we do not have AEO.
I’d be interested to see if women clergy in London feel supported by her – I genuinely do not know but would guess they do. This is not to be assumed when the bishop is a woman!
This is a great appointment by the way….
Sorry I get confused with the profusion of terms for this situation! What is the correct term for the situation in which a church operates under a complementarian bishop who is not their diocesan bishop?
Extended episcopal oversight. In all cases the diocesan remains your bishop…
How do you know that the Bishop of London feels no awkwardness in attending +Fulham’s services without being able to robe or function as the diocesan she is?
She is functioning as the Diocesan. She is there to remind Bishop Baker that he functions under her authority.
That doesn’t answer my question. How do we know she was happy to be relegated to the sidelines in choir dress, and felt no awkwardness? Other female bishops have said they find that situation painful.
There is no sense of the ‘relegation’ of a bishop in a ‘coram episcopo (or ‘coram episcopa’) mass. Before the liturgical ruptures of the 1970s this was the far more usual practice than the pontifical mass. At diocesan functions in St Paul’s, bishop Baker, as a suffragan, is quite content to sit ‘on the sidelines’ in choir dress while Bishop Mullally presides. That he does not receive communion from her is another matter.
That he does not receive communion from her is part of the same matter. She is being discriminated against because of her sex, and men are appointed precisely because some of her clergy won’t accept her. And we know she isn’t comfortable with it, because at a recent General Synod she spoke of ‘micro aggressions’ and burst into tears.
This whole thing about ‘there is no awkwardness’ is a deliberate refusal to recognise and acknowledge what our system is doing to her and other female bishops and clergy.
I hope so. Watching for the announcement on X, I noticed that the Diocese of Blackburn was first out of the starting gate with a welcome. +Blackburn is a highly political bishop. Me thinks he should follow his own argument about women bishops and join the periphery.
‘There’s no show without Punch’, as they say. I wonder who thinks he may have a chance of returning to London? (As I say…)
We don’t provide alternative episcopal oversight, even though that is what some people want as regards PLF.
I’m with Realist on this. She has the necessary political skill set but I hope there is more to her than that. Fr Alan’s death is a stain of shame yet to be ( in my view) properly addressed. I’m glad and surprised at the courage to appoint a woman. Hurrah. Waiting now for the cries of outrage from those who have ‘issues’ with women in leadership.
The Independent Review of the roles of Bishops of Ebbsfleet and Beverley seems especially well timed in the light of today’s news.
How so, Stephen? Please elaborate. I am aware of the recent Swinson report, but don’t see any particular relevance to today’s announcement, unless you are suggesting the the appt. of a female ABC will result in even more parishes demanding the services of an alternative bishop.
Yes I think some priests and parishes will look for extended episcopal oversight as a result if this appointment. It would be odd if the CNC hadn’t considered that outcome. The report wasn’t written or timed to preempt +Sarah’s appointment.
But nothing would have changed in respect of their Ordinary, so why would they now want extended episcopal oversight? Perhaps what they really want would be extended archiepiscopal oversight? In which case, they must be resisted. The ‘balkanisation’ of our church through ‘pick and mix’ oversight for every variant of belief has gone too far already.
I suppose people have different tipping points when it comes to applying for extended episcopal oversight.
By ‘our church’ I assume that you are talking about a small minority of the Anglican Communion. The vast majority are very happy with orthodoxy. The 2/3 rds majority required to change doctrine in the C of E synod is designed to prevent ‘balkanisation’. The revisionist bishops and archbishops are acting unlawfully so I wouldn’t rule it out.
But don’t forget that an increasing number of Gafcon provinces do ordain women as bishops, including Kenya, one of the great Gafcon strongholds. Indeed when Kenya made the decision to ordain women, they did not distinguish between ordination as bishop, priest and deacon (much as the Vatican regards the sacrament of order as essentially being a single thing). As a result ordaining a female bishop in Kenya has been remarkably straightforward and pain free.
When ++Justin made his awful and embarrassing valedictory speech in the Lords, Bishop Sarah was sitting on the bench alongside him with her head in her hands. Certain others were mindlessly laughing along. I hope that suggests more self awareness and less self importance at the top. There is such a headwind of ill-will which the CofE has to contend with now that one dreads to think how Archbishop Sarah will cope. She will need all our prayers and support – and my first prayer is that she does not cause further despair.
Yes, self-awareness and humility is vital, for us all. It’s too easy to rush for the ‘contentious issues’ agenda as though anyone can resolve them quickly.
What is needed is constant and faithful prayerful support and a self-discipline on all our parts not to rush to judgement or expect perfection.
Putting on my Sir Humphrey Appleby hat, I think I am correct to note that ++Sarah is due for retirement in March 2032, a few months before the Lambeth Conference is expected in I think summer 2032.
Is someone trying tactically to manage the potential “But BUT BUT!!!!! Woman Archbishop of Canterbury !!!!!!!!!!!!!!” ructions, whilst nonetheless introducing the concept to the centre of the Communion ? 😉
I should think the character of any Lambeth Conference is a trickier question than trying to avoid one with the timing referred to.
I wonder if a majority of comments here will be about her gender. Outside the C of E coterie, a nation which has become perfectly at home with female Prime Ministers might wonder what all the fuss is about.
It was she who was responsible for the closure of churches during the pandemic, betrayal of pastoral responsibility which damaged the Church and endless parish churches. With limited theological education, she must depend on theologically aware advisers and at 63, must be seen as a brave if caretaker appointment. She will need all our prayers.
What do you mean by ‘limited theological education’? She undertoook the same amount of training as Justin Welby….
She may have been studiously studying her bible and listening assiduously to sermons and attending bible classes and reading theological books since she was 16. I have no idea. Theological education does not just take place at theological colleges.
I thought it was the government of the time which brought in distancing laws during covid?
but enforced within parish churches by the medical authority of +London
Well said. It’s good to see someone who trained non-residentially appointed and I’m sure she has the wisdom to draw on the theological resources of others, as, I believe, did Robert Runcie.
Just checked Wikipedia (as Crockfords is down in our diocese). +Sarah has an MA in Theology earned while an incumbent. So she is more highly qualified than ++Justin, Robert Runcie et al . People also thought George Carey was uneducated – but he had an earned PhD in patristic theology. This kind of thing is just called prejudice.
I agree. My point is that any archbishop will draw on the theological resources of others and plenty of good theological wisdom come from our experience of the world and others’ experience as well as time with books and assignments.
Runcie had a First in Greats (Classics) from Cambridge and was principal of a theological college. The attitude toward Carey was just class prejudice, which is still endemic in the C of E.
Oxford. You can’t study (“read”) Greats at Cambridge.
Its tripods or something
You’ve just made Angusian’s point.
How so? In any case, she has an MA in theology – a proper one, not one paid for after a few years….
Quite
I think not. Runcie was a wise and articulate archbishop with an incisive mind. No university qualification in theology but a very good theological brain. Plenty of people with one or more PhDs don’t have the emotional intelligence or the wisdom that she has.
Sorry: this comment was in response to James not to FrDavid.
exactly – his theological sensitivity was limited to the HTB brand, famously popularised and limited by alpha!
I too have mixed feelings about this appt. but I am astonished that it has been possible to make the public announcement only a week after the last meeting of the CNC. It usually seems to take between one and two months during the appt. of a bishop, so how has it been possible to rush this through so quickly? And what was the point, given that it will be almost 6 months before the installation on Lady day next year? If speed is of the essence, surely something could have been done to expedite this long-drawn-out process? The gap… Read more »
Usually the CNC meeting is followed by medical and safeguarding checks on the person being nominated. That takes several weeks. In this case those checks were all completed before the final CNC meeting last week. Presumably all the shortlisted candidates were checked out.
Thanks, Simon, for your rapid explanation. But what a pain for the unsuccessful shortlisted candidates to have to go through all that for nothing! And presumably the safeguarding check did not identify Dame Sarah’s involvement in the Alan Griffin case as an obstacle. Many would demur.
Given the paperwork and all sorts of other stuff that candidates for diocesan bishoprics have to produce I suspect an extra DBS check is neither here nor there, and a medical perhaps not very much more.
The DBS check is presumably no different from the enhanced check any of us might need. All candidates shortlisted for bishoprics are also pre-checked for safeguarding awareness, history, skeletons etc.
All the short-listed candidates were interviewed in advance on their safeguarding awareness, with survivor representation.
All the more surprising then that the chosen candidate’s shameful handling of the Alan Griffin case should not have been seen as an obstacle.
I would assume she has a form of notice to give in London So this would be included in that time frame.
Looks to have been a smart process. I would have expected nothing less from a former director of MI5! We didn’t even know when the CNC met, except in very general terms, and certainly not the location. The reason for a rapid announcement was to prevent increasingly wild speculation. Channel 4 News came out with +Gloucester, and The Times with +Sheffield, only in recent days. None of that was helpful to anyone, not least those the subject of such speculation. For my (highly favourable) comments on the nomination, see my Facebook page.
Can you link to this, Anthony, please – I can’t see it.
Perhaps the King wanted it settled before his trip to Rome.
Perhaps the trip to Rome was caused in part by this impending news.
Congrats and prayers for Bishop Sarah. Judging by all the misogynistic and hateful comments on the Anglican Communion Facebook page, she’s going to need all the help she can get.
I thought she would be William Nye’s choice as Archbishop an apparently radical.choice but an ardent Royalist and a political safe pair of hands.
So the ex head of MI5 has done his job. A solid establishment figure is appointed
The C of E is the established church. Presumably all who would wish for a more radical and subversive appointment are also ardent supporters of disestablishment?
This is a historic moment and I rejoice in it. I think this is such a good appointment -someone already leading at this level can offer some important continuity and steady experience for what is ahead. As a priest in the CofE I am honoured to be a priest in a church that has appointed its first woman archbishop. Meanwhile the joy being expressed on the inclusive networks in this corner of the Midlands is rejuvenating in itself. She has prayers and my thanks. I am in no doubt how tough the challenges are that she faces.
Great to see a positive comment about this welcome appointment. Sadly it seems some people expect a person with an unblemished life to undertake this role. We are all human!
The Church in Wales beat the Church of England in having a female Archbishop, although not by much, and ++Cherry will only be enthroned on November 8th.
I was, of course, referring to the Church of England. I rejoiced for Wales too!
Ahem, we Yank Episcopalians beat you by nearly 20 years! (++Katharine Jefferts Schori, elected&invested as Presiding Bishop in 2006)
And she did a really good job, though I felt that she tried too hard to appeace the Anglican Communion’s conservatives when she “hit the pause button” on same-sex blessings (we got our in 1999).
Thank you for that comment, David. So many of the comments to her appointment come across as churlish, and one cannot help feeling that it is because she is a woman, and a very competent one at that. I don’t think I have seen so many comments produced so rapidly, and so much concentration on the negatives. Sad, but maybe the boys are upset (and jealous?). I am reminded of the request of James and John to sit either side of Jesus. I am proud that the Church of England has had the courage to appoint a woman primate, albeit… Read more »
Also after TEC and Canada.
And Brazil!
Thank you for your post. I agree about the churlish tone of some of the comments but your deduction that this is because the new Archbishop is a woman is perhaps not the issue. It is perfectly possible that many of the churls would have preferred a different woman to have been appointed. Also, plentiful expressions of disappointment used to happen in the days when only male candidates were considered. But I suspect you and I will not disagree about one aspect of all this – and it is no small matter. Both Wales and England have chosen women to… Read more »
“Sad, but maybe the boys are upset (and jealous?).” Well and as we see from the coverage, it is news worthy internationally. So the lads want to piggy back on that to draw attention to their same old overwrought mantra. I would not be surprised if their spiel was pretty much in the can before hand. It was just a matter of insert name of new Archbishop into the script. For them, it appears less about the new Archbishop and more about the political rhetoric that goes with carving out position in ‘realignment’. If there is a biblical allusion it… Read more »
It seems to me that the CofE is lucky that she is willing to serve. Leadership positions like these are hard and isolated, and the holders easily become the focus of factions’ disappointments, whether or not they personally had anything to do with them. The church would be wise to listen to her and let her be her sort of leader, without demanding that she is ‘advised’ by a bunch of men.
One hopes that Archbishop Sarah will take on board the fact that the Anglican Communion is a family of churches, nothing more.
The presence of Communion delegates on the CNC, an utterly misguided innovation, suggests the opposite.
We shall see…. I will be very critical of any further efforts to centralise.
Meanwhile, Their Majesties’ state visit to the Holy See, announced last week, may now have additional ecumenical urgency. Or at least publicly; perhaps it was the the nomination led to the visit?
I don’t think +Sarah would have been elected by the previous CNC composition: too many would have voted against a woman and/or a bishop who promoted LLF. I am left wondering if the change in the CNC format was actively planned to give a route for +Sarah to be elected? An intriguing thought. But like many others I have mixed feelings. She is more “establishment” than I would like and is unlikely to call the Government to account. On the other hand, I think (or at least hope) that she will have a significantly greater focus on domestic, rather than… Read more »
Bishop Sarah could not have been more accommodating to conservatives throughout the LLF process. It was respect not often reciprocated.
Not sure what you mean by “don’t think +Sarah would have been elected by the previous CNC composition.” The previous CNC was the one where the central members (of which I was one until 2021) served between 2017 – 2022. Its make up was less conservative than the current central member group, and of course it nominated +Sarah to London in 2016. I’m giving some thought to the variety of views (where known) of all the 17 members of the Canterbury CNC. I believe two factors were significant: (i) the five members elected to represent the wider Anglican Communion (AC);… Read more »
For 2016 read 2017
It would have been a different CNC though and I think there would have been enough conservative votes to block her appointment. But I could be wrong as you know so much more than me.
She has opposed the government over assisted dying. I’m told by those who know her she is not an establishment type…
Assisted dying was a free vote but if you are correct then hopefully we will hear her speak up about Gaza, the number of disabled people being pushed into poverty, the underfunding of social care and mental health, and several other issues where the Government is not displaying a strong social conscience.
Writing from the Anglican Church of Hong Kong, I’m delighted that a woman has been chosen. And I’m encouraged by two things she said in her address this morning.
‘In an age that craves certainty and tribalism, Anglicanism offers something quieter and stronger.’ And ‘The possibility of healing lies in acts of kindness and love.’
Yes indeed. Hallelujah.
The CNC is to be congratulated on taking the less politically safe option vis-a-vis the Anglican Communion and choosing a woman.
i was curious and looked up her background. Came across this: https://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/106th-archbishop-of-canterbury/#comments which led me to this: https://www.premierchristianity.com/uk-church/the-church-of-england-isnt-a-business-so-why-is-it-run-like-one/19475.article Rarely have I read such nonsense. “drag the church into 21st century using the skills he had learned in his previous life” What? He had never learnt those skills in his previous life, he was just dealing with company finance. Welby was head of Treasury at Enterprise Oil, and led a team of a small handful. He had absolutely no managerial experience of large organisations. It was completely crackpot to consider otherwise, and maybe the appointing panel showed how out of touch they… Read more »
The last Bishop of London to go to Canterbury was Geoffrey Fisher following the sudden and premature death of William Temple.
And Geoffrey Fisher was the last archbishop of Canterbury to be one of central churchmanship like the new archbishop, so it ends the old seesaw of going between catholic s and evangelical s as far as appointing to Canterbury is concerned. Jonathan
Also the last to wear apron and gaiters.
And to smoke a pipe?
And to be a Freemason
And to have been a headmaster
Sarah may the Lord bless you and keep you may the Lord make his face to shine upon you and give you peace. Amen.
Amen
Amen, may she be richly blessed. It was a bold and brave decision for the CNC to deliver. I am delighted that a Lady Bishop moves to this role.
Like many others, I suspect, I have mixed feelings. We could have ended up with a far worse choice and it is an advance to have a woman in this position. However a more boldly prophetic voice, and greater distance from managerialism (which is very different from effective management), would have been welcome at this time, in a society and world marked by stark injustice and threats to the very survival of some nations and communities in which the UK state may play a part.
Thank you for eloquently making the point I struggled to express clearly.
I think this may be what I was trying to say, badly, elsewhere. Maybe she has, or can develop, that voice. But in these days of slogans, myths, black and white, downright lies, a strong loud voice is needed. Is anybody in the church calling out anti-semitism? Is anybody in the church calling out for the right for a Jewish state? Is anybody in the church condemning support for terrorist organisations which wish to destroy Israel? Together, of course, whilst calling out the barbaric acts carried out in Gaza? Plus condemning October 7th. We seem at present to have a… Read more »
I was privileged to work with +Sarah when she was Bishop of Crediton and I am delighted that she has been appointed. It’s a wonderful day for the Church of England and the Anglican Communion and we should rejoice. Here is someone who has a great deal of emotional intelligence – a factor that is too often overlooked. Someone with a great deal of self awareness. And someone with a great deal of humility.
I’m delighted to hear that from someone who has worked with her. Unfortunately none of those attributes were demonstrated, in my view, in the handling of the Fr Alan Griffin case, and to not initiate disciplinary action against the Archdeacon of London for his part in it all showed a surprising failing in senior leadership decision making I didn’t expect from one of her experience. I hope we will begin to see the attributes you have seen, Andrew, in how she operates as Archbishop.
I think your observation of +Sarah’s emotional intelligence is a keen one. Thank you.
Emotional intelligence – thanks, Andrew, just the expression I was looking for. I sat on an interview panel where the patron favoured a candidate cut from the same moralistic and biblicist cloth as the last incumbent. +Sarah, despite being new in post, soon picked up that the good people of this benefice needed a bit of loving and steered us towards a more pastoral priest.
As someone looking in from elsewhere in The Communion, and not knowing a lot about the newly appointed ABC, I find your comment and that of Savi Hensman (above) among the most interesting so far, and in fruitful dialectical tension perhaps. I agree that emotional intelligence and empathy are among the most important charisms a pastor can posses. All candidates for pastoral ministry should be screened for such. And I don’t think those qualities are at odds with prophetic ministry–indeed they may ground the same. However, to Savi Hensman’s point, based on long experience in the institutional church, I wonder… Read more »
Rod – Ted Scott, maybe?
Indeed, Ted!
I’ve seen her in action once and she does sing the preface rather well, which is really unusual nowadays. Most bishops don’t even try. She also elevates at the consecration. I’m told also that she does know how to cense an eastward altar correctly, and there is at least one photo on the net of her wearing a proper collar, so that’s all Ok by me. She is a dull preacher though, as observed elsewhere in this thread.
I very warmly welcome Sarah Mullally’s appointment. I don’t know her personally, but if I did, I would offer her my hearty congratulations, my sincere thanks for having accepted this great burden, and the promise of my prayers. Given the extraordinary levels of expectation, and the conflicting tensions that are all projected upon any holder of this office, I thought her first address showed that the CNC have done a good job. I know that there are things that can be said against her – but then we are all grown up enough to know that the perfect candidate does… Read more »
Well said.
Jeremy, if her record on LGBT issues were as dubious as her record on safeguarding, would you still be welcoming her appointment with such enthusiasm? Why is that survivors of church abuse and re-abuse are always the ones being urged to forgive, move on, and show solidarity with the C of E establishment? It’s yet another form of re-abuse.
I agree with your wise words, Jeremy, and I recognise that we must move on in a positive way. It is not ours to forgive of course, but it would help to allay my concerns, and those of many others who have posted here about the Alan Griffin case, If Dame Sarah would admit that the case was handled badly, but was handled in accord with the prevailing safeguarding culture at the time, which was always to give priority to the reputation of the church over the needs of survivors and victims, and that the culture would change when she… Read more »
I am very pleased that the C of E now has appointed a woman as Archbishop of Canterbury and on a personal level I pray that Dame Sarah finds the strength and grace to grow into this most difficult role. However, tragically , some of the comments in this thread also outline extremely starkly the utterly disgraceful position the Church stands in with respect allegations of Safeguarding. Malcolm, you talk about the prevailing safeguarding culture of the time . The Coroner’s report addressed to Justin Welby in respect of Fr. Alan Griffin was dated less than five years ago. So… Read more »
Thanks, Susanna – I agree. It will take significant changes at the top of the executive to make the necessary changes possible.
Let me try to enter bit of levity, but maybe deeply serious.
Do all women priests and bishops go to the same hair dresser? The same as Theresa May? What about a bit of Angela Rayner style flowing locks? A bit of sexiness? Sexiness is God-given.
Whatever you do, do not dance like Theresa May, do not sing like Andrea Jenkyns.
But please show a spark. A holy spark. filled with the Holy Spirit. A spark filled with anger. Like Jesus. When necessary.
I don’t think I ever saw ‘sexiness’ feature in a post about the appointment of a man.
That last Bishop of Liverpool was sexy, and look what happened to him!
Nigel Goodwin, I am not interested in reading about your personal preferences for the looks and sexual attractiveness of ordained women. The idea that sexiness is a quality women should put to good use in priesthood or episcopacy – is God given and even a gift of the Holy Spirit – is frankly disturbing. This in a church still harrowed by stories of sexual abuse and manipulation of women. I found your comments patronising, sexist and offensive.
I nearly fell out of my chair laughing when I read them. Their total inappropriateness made me smile as I contemplated the degree of opprobium heading Nigel’s way. He is the William Shakespeare of un-PC writing.
The sentence ‘Do not dance like Theresa May, do not sing like Andrea Jenkins’ is by itself a work of genius.
Should they ever make ‘Carry On Canterbury’ Nigel is surely the man to script it. Failing that, the Sun may have an opening for a religion editor.
‘Sexiness’?! Cough. ‘Levity’? I think not.
Even on a thinking Anglicans the conversation defaults to a woman’s appearance within hours! yes, of course women and men who are ordained should also feel able to be the person who God called, and some of that is their choices over appearance. But women still live with comments about their appearance significantly more than men, and often conflicting comments. And do you know – her vocation, and the vocation of any other woman or indeed man, is not anything to do with whether anyone else likes how they look. ( yes, I am sure TA can produce comments with… Read more »
Good grief. On what planet is this appropriate?
I don’t remember anyone pointing out the similarity between the hairstyles of Welby, Coggan and Fisher. Or Runcie and Williams (sans beard). Why? Because we never think of mentioning it in connection with men.
Happy to see I have provoked some laughs! Male clergy used to, at least, have an unsexy uniformity of dress. Black, grey and brown if you are lucky. They used to have a uniformity of barber too – parting to one side. Having provoked amusement, maybe my point can be gradually discerned? Did not Margaret Thatcher realise her hair was an asset? Did not Theresa May claim that the most exciting thing she ever did was to walk through a field of wheat? Appearance matters in communication in these days. Is Song of Solomon no longer in the bible? Did… Read more »
Generally, communication matters. We perhaps don’t need to explore the Taylor Swift route which on occasion may vary slightly from St Paul’s request for women to dress modestly, with decency and propriety, adorning themselves, not with elaborate hairstyles or gold or pearls or expensive clothes, but with good deeds, appropriate for women who profess to worship God. My old church in Madison WI began with about 10 people in the mid 1960s and now has 5000. It was up to about 1000 when I attended, and every week there were more and more people piling in – it felt quite literally biblical.… Read more »
NIgel, there was nothing at all funny in your comment. It was offensive. As a woman priest who has been sexually harassed and indecently assaulted by male priests, it made me very angry. Yours is an attitude which has caused so much damage. Yes, how we dress and behave is part of the way we communicate. This doesn’t mean we have to be ‘sexy’. Men of good calibre are able to view and value women for their other qualities, not simply as sex objects. I’m very disappointed in you, especially as you chose to double down rather than backtracking when… Read more »
I think there has been more than enough discussion of episcopal appearance, especially female episcopal appearance. I don’t intend to publish anything further.
Incorrect. see my link below.
Um – are you replying to me? It’s not clear, in the TA linking system, what you’re replying to.
I know, it can be confusing. I was replying to anybody who said that appearance or hairstyles of male archbishops did not feature in the press. Will self did, in the New Statesman.
I’ve only recently started reading Thinking Anglicans. I’m wondering Nigel which bit of your body is doing the thinking…..
Here we go… Regarding Justin Welby, an article in the New Statesman started with: the most significant indicators of his true nature lie first in his appearance. It continues: His is not a bonny countenance; rather, he resembles a constipated tortoise with sunburn. Frankly, he could do with a beard – the more patriarchal the better – simply to cover up that sourpuss. He does commend Williams: Dr Williams achieved this difficult task brilliantly. That he did so was, in large measure, due to his appearance: the most fanatical adherent of sharia law hearkened to his fluting emollience, because, resembling as… Read more »
Proverbs 26.11?
Is that not insulting and personal? Let a dog return to his vomit?
It says far more about you than about me.
Sheesh.
Matthew 26.52.
So agree about Welby! Described today in the Sunday Times as ‘a flea-bitten clerk from a Dickens novel, or Gollum.’ Ouch! The article goes on to describe Mullally as a ‘silencer’ on safeguarding issues when Bishop of Crediton, and (worst of all) a ‘just so boring’ preacher!
Does this signal that the CofE is a Church in crisis, in need of an internally-focused bureaucrat to clear up a mess? It suggests that this was deemed more necessary than someone who would inspire, excite and invite serious and enquiring minds beyond the Church. Others have highlighted Sarah Mullally’s gifts and weaknesses in other threads; more important is the need to have creative and insightful people around her, not least those with theological depth and spark, to ensure that her contributions to public discourse rise above the mundane and predictable.
It would indeed be terrific to have somebody “who would inspire, excite and invite serious and enquiring minds beyond the Church”. But given that even the most cautious questioning of two thousand year old “doctrine” causes a furore (just look at all those vituperative responses to her appointment) that does seem, sadly, a forlorn hope. Over the years, those who have tried this and have excited minds beyond the Church, have come to no good end.
Have to say it: ‘Dame’ is a very weird title. It makes me think of American gangster movies, with men speaking in Brooklyn accents, talking about the ‘dames’.
Guys, dolls and ‘tomatas’ etc, depends whether your source material is Damon Runyan, Dashiel Hammet or Raymond Chandler. “Look at me, ma, I’m on top o’ de woild.” “Muddah a moicy, iz dis de end of Rico?” etc
Two nations divided by a common language, Tim? On hearing ‘Dame Sarah’ was to be Bishop of Crediton I wondered briefly if she was a Benedictine nun.
I was born in the UK, lived there til I was seventeen, and understand UK English. I still think ‘Dame’ is a very weird title. And calling someone ‘The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Dame Sarah Mullally’ seems not only weird but completely over the top.
Mind you, I believe that the Jesus of the gospels takes a dim view of titles, period (‘full stop’).
“The Right Honourable” is simply the ‘handle’ given to a Privy Councillor (equally the case, I thought, in Canada and Australia, etc). The two archbishops and the Bishop of London are automatically Privy Councillors by virtue of their high office. “The Right Reverend’ is the proper title of any bishop of the Church of England with the sole exception of the two archbishops who are “The Most Reverend” (again this distinction is not confined to the CofE). Dame Sarah’s damehood is a secular honour (as former Chief Nursing Officer of the UK) which she retains. “The Right Honourable and Right… Read more »
Rowland, why do you always assume that I don’t know these things? I’m not ignorant about the origin of these titles (I also am an Anglican priest and I was raised in Church of England vicarages). I simply think that such grandiosity is inappropriate for disciples of Jesus of Nazareth.
Dorothy Hodgkin, who received a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964, was shortly afterwards expecting either DBE or Order of Merit (OM) to come her way. Her preference was very much for the latter which in the event she got. She did not want to become Dame Dorothy. All of this is in the biography of Dorothy Hodgkin by Georgina Ferry. I have written one or two fairly light articles about Dorothy Hodgkin myself. One, published in ‘Physics World’, is entitled ‘A view of the Pyramids’. It is a comment on the fact that Dorothy Hodgkin (birth name Dorothy Crowfoot)… Read more »
I can’t think anyone would use ‘The Most Reverend and Right Honourable Dame’ – although I suppose Debrett’s have to make a living. ‘Reverend Mother in God’ is the correct liturgical form at English ordinations and essentially relational in nature as befits a diocese’s chief pastor, But I’ve heard unhappy alternatives: from the matey ‘Bishop Ruth’ to the hierarchical ‘Right Reverend Mother in God’ – so anything is possible.
There are conservatives in London Diocese who call +Sarah ‘Dame’ because they do not recognise her as a bishop.
An example of the ‘micro-aggressions’ cited earlier and which have been shown to have a cumulative effect on the recipient. Depressing.
Alan, I literally copied it from the Downing Street announcement. The only change i made was from ‘Right Reverend’ to ‘Most Reverend.’
The Savoy opera language of the world of court circulars, fawning courtiers and overweening (but often insincere) deference. I was referring to the forms of address used in church, of which that used at ordinations is the most formal.
Well if you are a Thinking person you would have been able to research how +Sarah received this designation@
You’re assuming I don’t?
She ain’t no dame. She’s my wife!
You are looking the wrong way through the telescope. It is the American gangster films (and others) who have debased the English language. Dames are the female equivalents of knights, a secular honour of a woman in her own right, not as the wife of an honoured man.
Female High Court judges in England and Wales are made dames on their appointment and, like most of their US counterparts take “The Honourable” into their formal title.
I weary of having things I already know explained to me.
I also know that the English word ‘gay’ (often used in traditional folk songs, eg. ‘Johnny gave the youngest one a gay gold ring’) now has a completely different meaning than it did fifty years ago—so much so that if you insist on using it with its older meaning, you’ll constantly be misunderstood or laughed at. Complain all you like about those tasteless Americans; doesn’t change a thing.
My comments on TA are always intended to be helpful, and informative where clarification appears to be appropriate or necessary.
I have visited USA and (very briefly) Canada. I have friends in the US and greatly value that friendship.
A song I recall from my childhood begins ‘Come let us reap the flax this day, dye it in colours bright and gay’.
I have not been able to find the song online. It might have been in the ‘Singing Together’ broadcasts with William Appleby.
Also, Wordsworth’s ‘A poet could not but be gay, in such a jocund company’. I think we all encounter that at school, possibly set to music.
Word meanings change. For example, Noel Coward’s lyrics for “I went to a marvelous party” include:
Everyone’s here and frightfully gay,
Nobody cares what people say,
Though the Riviera
Seems really much queerer
Than Rome at its height,
Yesterday night.
But this is getting quite off the subject of this thread, isn’t it?
Actually, that’s exactly my point.
No its fine, its the First Rule of Thinking Anglicans, that any thread with 50+ comments always ends up talking about sex, no matter what the original topic. Someone had to go there!